On 17 April 2020, the Senate approved a draft law aiming to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on persons involved in various legal proceedings (known in Czech as the Lex Covid). As we have informed you before, the new Act significantly improves the position of debtors affected by the pandemic in insolvency proceedings and also simplifies the functioning of corporate bodies during the pandemic. Major relief is also granted to all debtors, who may go into payment default due to the measures adopted in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic.

To all insolvency proceedings opened before a court of an EU Member State after 26 June 2017, the Regulation (EU) 2015/848 of 20 May 2015 on Insolvency Proceedings (recast) will be applicable.

ALBANIA AUSTRIA BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA BULGARIA CROATIA CZECH REPUBLIC HUNGARY POLAND ROMANIA SERBIA SLOVAK REPUBLIC SLOVENIA UKRAINE 1 TO OUR READERS Welcome to the 6th edition of the DRInsider, the quarterly Newsletter of the Wolf Theiss Dispute Resolution Practice Group. We are happy to once again provide you with interesting news covering the various CEE/SEE jurisdictions in which we practice.

Introduction

As of 1 January 2015, the Au;trian criminal procedure code ("StPO") ctifferentiates between      suspects     (Verdachtiger)      and

subJect    to    loose    and    unsubstantiated

The Constitutional Court of FBiH has found that the current order of settlement of workers' claims in bankruptcy proceedings is unconstitutional.

With Judgment U-27/15, the Court declared articles 33 and 40 of the Law on Bankruptcy Proceedings (FBiH Official Gazette, nos. 29/03, 32/04 and 42/06) unconstitutional, which considerably affected the order of settlement of creditors in bankruptcy proceedings. 

The Court clarifies many debatable questions related to insolvency proceedings under the Bulgarian Commercial Act

The 2014 collapse of the Corporate Commercial Bank (ranked 4th in the country) raised doubts  about  the  accuracy  of  the  overall  liquidity  ratio  (34.80%)  and  asset  value (approx. EUR 44.07 billion) of  the  banking  sector  in  Bulgaria,  not  least  because  assets had been evaluated according to  the  internal  rules  of  the  respective  credit  institutions.

Rebeka Kleytman was a co-author of this article. 

Almost two decades after being adopted following the model of the World Bank and UNCITRAL for non-possessory registered pledges, the Special Pledges Act (the "Act") was substantially amended at the end of 2016. Most of the amendments take immediate effect while those concerning the digitalization of the Central Register of Special Pledges (the "Register") will come into force on 1 September 2018.

Overcollateralization

On 2 January 2017, amendments to the Bulgarian Commerce Act (the "Act") entered into force in Bulgaria. Amongst the aims of the Act is to prevent falsification of documents by introducing new formal requirements for certain agreements and shareholders' resolutions.

STRICTER FORMAL REQUIREMENTS FOR AGREEMENTS

EU Regulation No 655/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council to facilitate cross-border debt recovery in civil and commercial matters, in force since 18 January 2017.

It has been over a year now since the European Account Preservation Order (EAPO) came into force. However, a great number of people are still not aware of its purpose and benefits. Thus, this article shall serve as a short reminder.

Applicability